Bios

Jack has a two-decade record of public policy and legal advocacy success in environmental, energy, public lands, and oceans projects, and is a sought-after expert in the rapidly-developing field of ocean renewable energy.

Jack Sterne is the principal of Rising Tide Strategies LLC, which provides strategic advice to environmental organizations and renewable energy companies. He has been actively involved in shaping and implementing ocean legislation and policy at the national level for the last ten years, and spent eight years as a public interest environmental litigator in Oregon and Alaska.

He is the co-founder of Ocean Champions, the only national political organization for the oceans. He was Executive Director for three years and continues to serve Ocean Champions as a senior advisor and board member.

Prior to founding Ocean Champions and his consulting practice, he had a successful career as a public interest environmental litigator focused on public lands, fisheries, and oceans, either winning or settling favorably a majority of his cases. He was co-lead counsel in the Steller sea lion litigation, which was one of the most politically charged and important fisheries and marine mammal cases in the modern regulatory era. His litigation victories include cases under the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Wilderness Act, the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act, and the Freedom of Information Act. Other areas of statutory expertise include the Federal Power Act, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Coastal Zone Management Act, the National Forest Management Act, and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act.

He has also handled land use, real property, and water law matters for private individuals and done special projects for Oregon and Alaska Indian tribes. He is currently an adjunct professor at Lewis & Clark Law School, teaching Ocean and Coastal Law.